Space
Pluto New Horizons Mission Reveals a String of Mountains on the Icy Planet
Catherine Griffin
First Posted: Jul 16, 2015 06:57 AM EDT
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft made its historic flyby of Pluto on July 14. Now, it's transmitted back some of the sharpest images yet of Pluto's moon, Charon, and pictures of the icy mountains on Pluto.
"Pluto New Horizons is a true mission of exploration showing us why basic scientific research is so important," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, in a news release. "The mission has had nine years to build expectations about what we would see during closest approach to Pluto and Charon. Today, we get the first sampling of the scientific treasure collected during those critical moments and I can tell you it dramatically surpasses those high expectations."
The new images show a close-up picture of an equatorial region near the base of Pluto's bright heart-shaped feature. This reveals a mountain range with peaks jutting as high as 11,000 feet above the surface of the planet.
The mountains on Pluto probably formed no more than 100 million years ago, which makes them quite young in our 4.56-billion-year-old solar system. This suggests that the close-up region, which covers about one percent of Pluto's surface, may still be geologically active today.
"This is one of the youngest surfaces we've ever seen in the solar system," said Jeff Moore of the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging Team (GGI) at NASA's Ames Research Center.
Unlike the icy moons of giant planets, Pluto can't be heated by gravitational interactions with a much larger planetary body. This means that some other process must be generating the mountainous landscape.
The new view of Charon reveals a youthful and varied terrain. Scientists are actually surprised at the apparent lack of craters. In addition, a swath of cliffs and troughs suggests widespread fracturing of Charon's crust that's likely the result of internal geological processes.
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First Posted: Jul 16, 2015 06:57 AM EDT
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft made its historic flyby of Pluto on July 14. Now, it's transmitted back some of the sharpest images yet of Pluto's moon, Charon, and pictures of the icy mountains on Pluto.
"Pluto New Horizons is a true mission of exploration showing us why basic scientific research is so important," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, in a news release. "The mission has had nine years to build expectations about what we would see during closest approach to Pluto and Charon. Today, we get the first sampling of the scientific treasure collected during those critical moments and I can tell you it dramatically surpasses those high expectations."
The new images show a close-up picture of an equatorial region near the base of Pluto's bright heart-shaped feature. This reveals a mountain range with peaks jutting as high as 11,000 feet above the surface of the planet.
The mountains on Pluto probably formed no more than 100 million years ago, which makes them quite young in our 4.56-billion-year-old solar system. This suggests that the close-up region, which covers about one percent of Pluto's surface, may still be geologically active today.
"This is one of the youngest surfaces we've ever seen in the solar system," said Jeff Moore of the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging Team (GGI) at NASA's Ames Research Center.
Unlike the icy moons of giant planets, Pluto can't be heated by gravitational interactions with a much larger planetary body. This means that some other process must be generating the mountainous landscape.
The new view of Charon reveals a youthful and varied terrain. Scientists are actually surprised at the apparent lack of craters. In addition, a swath of cliffs and troughs suggests widespread fracturing of Charon's crust that's likely the result of internal geological processes.
Related Stories
New Horizons 'Phones Home' to NASA After Historic Pluto Flyby
Wanted: Astronauts to Colonize Surface of Planet Mars by 2023
For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone